Let me start by saying a huge thank you to the folks behind the scenes that have been keeping the UU forums alive all this time. It has been an incredible resource for all things ukulele. In my opinion, the absolute best resource on the internet. True, it is an antiquated software, but it contains a vast amount of information and knowledge. It is a place where conversations and discussions happen, ideas are exchanged, knowledge is passed on, and it is persistent and searchable. It is this last bit, the persistent and searchable part, that I feel is the most important part of it. Just yesterday I was looking for information about what strings people liked on a Bruko #6, and I found threads going back to 2009 with a simple Google search. That same Google search also lead to other discussions, web pages, and videos, so even if I didn't have a lot of experience with the resources and ukulele community, I got to the UU forums and what I was looking for in basically one step.
The new Discord servers are a different beast. Discord is, in my experience, essentially a group of real time chats organized into loose channels. They are meant for a much more synchronous conversation than a traditional forum. They are meant for near real-time communication about topics but are essentially transient. If you aren't in the discussion at the time, you probably aren't finding that particular discussion without a *lot* more digging; scrolling back through a very long thread and hoping to find the piece you were looking for. You have to keep up all the time, or you lose out. Well, I don't really have time for that, to be honest. I am not some ancient luddite either, I am still (relatively) young and consider myself a technophile, but I also know that I only have so many hours in the day. I don't drink from the firehose, I just read the threads that actually interest me.
There is, to my knowledge, no other resource like this one. The r/ukulele sub-Reddit is a poor substitute for the kind of in depth discussions which occur here. I know of no other "proper" forum focusing on ukuleles anywhere on the "true" web. I say this to differentiate it from the siloed communities such as Facebook. The internet is meant to be a platform for the free exchange of ideas and information, not to be hidden behind multiple accounts for the purposes of selling advertising. (I realize that this is a bit idealistic on my part, but I truly believe, deep in my soul, that this is true and that the compartmentalization of the free and open network makes us weaker in the long run.)
At the end of the day, I could not begin to ask for the UU team to keep the lights on. But should it happen, the current plan of a Discord server simply will not serve the same function. Should they decide to keep it going, I don't know how I can help, but I know I want to. Losing it for just a day was proof enough for me just how much I have come to depend on its existence.
Whatever happens, I am thankful for what time I was able to spend here.
I'm looking for some other type of forum replacement software as well. The issue really comes down to the time it takes to keep it up and running. The mods do so much work behind the scenes and vbulletin is not an easy software to maintain a community on.
Like I said, I'm open to any kind of suggestions. I've looked at other forum software, but even if we do that, we need more mods to help and a way to pay for the new software as it probably would be a hosted solution.
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